Dr Nawshad Akther is a Casual Academic in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney. She is also a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney. Dr Akther received her PhD in Environmental Engineering from UTS and completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the American University of Sharjah and Khalifa University, respectively. 

Her research spans advanced water treatment, membrane science, desalination and sustainable resource recovery. Her current research investigates advanced oxidation processes for water treatment, with a particular focus on the formation and control of disinfection by-products. She is recognised for her work on graphene oxide- and graphene derivative-modified nanocomposite membranes for forward osmosis. Her broader research interests include emerging contaminants, membrane fouling, nanofiltration and the selective recovery of critical minerals from complex water and industrial waste streams.

Dr Akther has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles in leading international journals. She has received several awards for her research and science communication, including the Membrane Society of Australasia Early Career Researcher Award (2024), the Excellent Researcher Award from the ARC Research Hub for Energy-efficient Separation (2022), the MSA Best Student Award (2021), the MSA Best Short Talk Award (2020), the UTS Three Minute Thesis Competition Award (2020), the UTS Higher Degree by Research Director’s Commendation for Research Excellence (2019), and the UTS Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Higher Degree by Research Collaboration Experience Award (2019).